College football kickoff: Alabama in Death Valley, Top 25 buzz, matchups and picks

Here's a look at the big matchups and top storylines from around the nation as we near kickoff on another Saturday of college football:

The Big Buzz: Brawl in Baton Rouge

No.1 Alabama at No. 5 LSU, 8 p.m. EDT

LSU head coach Les Miles, left, talks to Alabama head coach Nick Saban after the Crimson Tide won 21-0 in the BCS National Championship NCAA college football game in New Orleans. Alabama-LSU has become the greatest rivalry in college football, and it's time for another epic showdown: No. 1 Crimson Tide vs. No. 5 Tigers on Saturday. (AP File Photo/David J. Phillip)

LSU was the last team to beat Alabama, winning a 9-6 defensive struggle in the "Game of the Century" almost exactly a year ago. Can the Tigers do it again Saturday when the undefeated Crimson Tide visit Baton Rouge to renew this bitter SEC rivalry?

It's the sport's two "it" programs colliding at the heights of their power and relevance. In terms of star power, bad blood and sex appeal, we haven't seen anything like it since Miami-Florida State dominated the national rankings and Nielsen ratings back in the 1980s and 1990s.

Death Valley is still there. If you don't think that's a big deal, imagine sitting in front of a refrigerator-sized speaker at a Metallica concert. And in back of you is a Pratt & Whitney jet engine, fully revved.

Try as we might, it's hard to consider Saturday's game as anything more than just another speed bump on the way to a championship. Last year's Game of the Century was a meeting of two undefeated teams with weeks of buildup. This season LSU already has stumbled once and looked clunky often.

While Alabama has steamrolled eight opponents - only one foe has gotten closer than 27 points - the Tide will be running into undoubtedly its toughest opponent thus far coming off an extra week's rest in perhaps the most intimidating home environment possible.

Game manager sounds like such a mundane description for the quarterback of a national title contender. Yet Nick Saban, the coach of No. 1 Alabama, thinks it's the "ultimate compliment" for quarterback AJ McCarron or for his counterpart Satuday, Zach Mettenberger of No. 5 LSU. (AP File Photo/Dave Martin)

In a rivalry defined by the defenses in recent meetings, mistake-free quarterback play will be a key for both teams. AL.com's Andrew Gribble writes that last season's loss to LSU was a turning point for Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron, who has matured into one of the best quarterbacks in the nation:

McCarron’s streak without an interception -- 262 passes and counting -- has been common knowledge ever since he emerged as a potential Heisman trophy candidate sometime last month. What’s maybe been even more impressive is his average of just seven incompletions per game since last year’s LSU loss.

LSU hopes that quarterback Zach Mettenberger, who seems to be dealing with the same growing pains that his counterpart at Alabama struggled with early last season, can do better than McCarron's shaky performance in this game a year ago, writes GeauxTigerNation blogger David Helman:

At the end of the day, the Tigers would gladly accept a victory, even if they didn't complete a single pass. But against the Crimson Tide defense, throwing the ball is a necessity. While McCarron used the LSU game last season as a learning process, Miles and Co. will have to hope the learning curve is sharper for Mettenberger in his first taste of the rivalry.

Watch Fox Sports analysts break down the game in the video below:

Top games

Outside of Saturday's big SEC battle, here are the weekend's other marquee matchups involving teams ranked in the AP Top 25 poll:

• Missouri at No. 8 Florida, 12 p.m. EDT

• No. 16 Texas A&M at No. 17 Mississippi State, 12 p.m. EDT

• Pitt at No. 4 Notre Dame, 3:30 p.m. EDT

• No. 2 Oregon at No. 18 USC, 7 p.m. EDT

• Oklahoma State at No. 3 Kansas State, 8 p.m. EDT

• No. 24 Arizona at No. 25 UCLA, 10:30 p.m. EDT

Who they're picking

• USA Today's experts unanimously expect Alabama to meet its biggest challenge of the season by beating LSU. Likewise, the panel is in agreement that Oregon will defeat USC and Kansas State will handle Oklahoma State.

• Stewart Mandel of SI.com likes Alabama to beat LSU, 20-3, and has Oregon's offense lighting up the scoreboard once again in a predicted 40-24 victory over USC. He goes with Michigan State to tip No. 21 Nebraska in this week's upset special.

• NBCSports.com backs favorites Alabama, Oregon, Kansas State and Notre Dame, and likes Mississippi State to nip Texas A&M by a score of 28-27.

• ESPN.com Pac-12 bloggers Kevin Gemmell and Ted Miller each pick Arizona to beat UCLA and Oregon to beat USC, SEC bloggers Edward Aschoff and Chris Low are split on the Texas A&M-Mississippi State matchup, and Andrea Adelson and Matt Fortuna both expect Notre Dame to take care of business against Pitt.

• CBSSports.com's panel of six writers is split down the middle on Nebraska-Michigan State and Texas A&M-Mississippi State. TCU gets one vote to pull the upset over No. 23 West Virginia, and columnist Dennis Dodd is the lone voice predicting that Arizona State will topple No. 13 Oregon State.

What they're saying

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier says that Alabama can give NFL teams a run for their money. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)

“Alabama, gosh, they look like they could beat a couple of those NFL teams that I’ve watched on Sundays,” Spurrier said. “I think a lot of the oddsmakers out there that usually know what’s going on, I’d guess Alabama would be favored by a little bit.”

"My personal tiebreaker is that a conference championship game has to stand for something," says Danielson, who'll call CBS' Alabama-LSU on Saturday. "I would penalize Notre Dame for not playing in a conference championship. So after Alabama, my first nod would be to Oregon, since its conference has earned respect, then Kansas State and only then Notre Dame."

On the one hand, it's surprising that conservative NFL types would be interested in a coach whose unorthodox system is so drastically different than theirs. Old-guard execs generally smirk at NFL outsiders. But many teams are already implementing aspects of Kelly's up-tempo approach, and Kelly's NFL credibility likely shot up a few rungs with last month's revelation that Patriots czar Bill Belichick implemented his own one-word no-huddle play-calls following meetings in New England with Kelly.

Of course the SEC will continue to produce quality football outside of Alabama. But what kind of a gauge of a conference’s strength can you get when one team dominates? How can the SEC keep up the claim of No. 1 league in the land if there’s no evidence that the teams beyond Alabama are capable of claiming the top spot?

• Oregon is going to have a tough time moving up from its current No. 4 spot in the BCS standings without one of the teams ahead of the Ducks - Alabama, Kansas State or Notre Dame - suffering a loss. Tony Barnhart of CBSSports.com writes that Oregon needs to dominate USC this week to strengthen its case:

Oregon needs to win and it needs to win big against the Trojans. It needs to set the bar pretty high for Notre Dame, which plays at USC on Nov. 24. And if Arizona can run 94 plays against USC, then the Ducks should be able to run a 100.

"Anybody that's been through it before, we kind of let the younger guys know that as soon as you come out of the locker room, to your left will be a live tiger," Square said with a smile after Tuesday's practice.

"Be ready for that."

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow rushes against Ohio State in the first quarter at the BCS national championship football game in Glendale, Ariz., on Monday, Jan. 8, 2007. (AP File Photo/Paul Connors)